house. >> look over here, barney. >> is ms. beasley sleeping? >> yeah. nap time for her. >> how you doing. >> he totally got me. >> oh my god. >> barney bit a reporter. we had the tape. but i think this adorable little girl has herself a new christmas card this year. merry christmas to you to the first lady, and to sunny. thanks for watching. i'm al sharpton. "hardball" starts right now. president obama comes here tomorrow. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. i got the christmas eve excitement brug here at hard

balance, because tomorrow at precisely this time, the president of the united states is going to join us on "hardball." it's going to be a serious night of questions, certainly for me, questions about executive management methods and the health care rollout, voter suppression across the country and war and peace questions. how we can avert war with iran. we've been hitting these issues on "hardball." i'm hoping the president will be responsive to the concerns that you and i certainly share and the hopes that we have for this country for the next three years. unfortunately, america's still being assaulted by the bizarre benghazi tactics or that he's an illegal alien who shouldn't have been elected in the first place and should be deported to east africa or somewhere more distant. we have a wild and wooly right

wing out there that cares nothing about facts, only the need to strike a blow for benghazi, birtherism or bingo. yesterday the republican led house judiciary committee held a hearing called the president's constitutional duty to faithfully execute the laws. dana milbank is with us right now. this was an impeachment hearing. time and again, the red hots on the far right blew the bugle for driving the president from office. >> what can you do. you got to go up there and you impeach him or you go up there and you just cut funds off. you shut everything down. >> if a president is ignoring entire categories of the law, whether it be immigration, marijuana, mandatory minimum, the aca, what is the remedy for the legislative branch. >> the next recourse, the word

that we don't like to say. >> we've also talked about the i word, impeachment, which i don't think would get past the senate in the current climate. am i missing anything? is there anything else we can do? >> there's the guy. how, i think i'm watching buffalo bob and the peanut gallery. ip atoo old not to remember that stuff. but let me ask you this. that guy, let's not forget his providence. he was the guy on this show not too long ago who said i will not say the president was legitimately elected president. i gave him three shots at that baby, and he wouldn't do it. he's also illegitimate. i don't know if you can impeach a guy that was not there legitimately. >> and he is on record now saying that the house would vote to impeach this president if they were allowed to have this vote, and he said what else can we do? what's our remedy?

well, there really isn't one. so they can have one of these show hearing. yeah, it's an impeachment hearing. >> they're stymied by the lack of facts? >> well, you can win an election, you didn't do that last year. they lost the fight on the default and the budget showdown. you take them to court. that's not going to work. >> let's stop for a second. you're a little young. you maybe remember it as a toddler. there was an impeachment hearing this this country. democrat and republican alike, very solemnly looked at the question of richard nixon's misbehavior. they had articles of impeachment, a long investigation by bobby kennedy's top guy. they weren't making stupid, snarky remarks. this clown show, this is what they're doing. they don't have a case. >> these folks who are part of this clown show, they take this very seriously.

>> they do? >> is it showing off? >> keep something in mind, though, chris, that hearing that happened yesterday, that's the first sort of public hearing here in washington in official capacity of this impeachment talk. during the summer in august when they were all out at their town hall meetings, this came up time and time again. >> do you think they're dropping the dime. they're trying to get the word out there and trying to get it in play, the word? do you think it's systematic? >> the word is already out thayer. people started talking about this because they're still pushing the notion that the president is in the white house illegitimately. that's, that was behind the scenes. now -- >> ted cruz was born in canada to an american mother just like the president was. even though he was born in honolulu. that's part of the united states, something a lot of these people don't know. >> the moment we should start to take the folks in this clown

show really seriously is when you have serious people within the house, more serious people in the senate. >> i've never heard anybody being serious about something unserious. >> you don't see any other republican in the senate, you don't see john mccain or lindsey graham talking about impeachment do you? >> you hear coburn and imhoff. >> they're playing to the patch back home. >> they can rile up the base. they know the end result they want, which is impeachment, but they have a dozen different reasons, is it "fast & furious," benghazi. >> irs. >> there was a word named decency. the impeachment cry is about attacking the president's right to be president. earlier, they threatened to

impeach if the president raised the debt limit. this president is looking to find a way to get it done without us. my position is that that's an impeachable act from my perspective. then the far right threatened impeachment if the president did not act to raise the debt. here's a u.s. congressman down in october. >> would you allow us to default on our debt? >> no, that would be an impeachable offense by the president. >> that would be an impeachment if he didn't act. either way, so either way, raise the debt limit or not, these guys can teach it round or teach it flat. >> the president is damne dchd e does, damned if he doesn't. they got together and said you say this and i'll say that. they're just -- >> you say neither, i say

neither but let's call the whole thing off. what is it? it's hard to beat this punch. >> you can't satire this. this is the third of the electorate blames president obama for hurricane katrina's response. they say oh, let's have an impeachment hearing but just say it's the "i " word. >> no talk about impeachment would be complete without bringing up that magic bingo word of benghazi. red hots do salivate over the idea when it comes to impeachment. >> jason chaffetz is joining us. he suggested that perhaps, perhaps president obama's handling of the benghazi terror attack could be, could be an impeachable offense. >> i was simply asked, is that

within the realm of possibilities, and i would say yes. i'm not willing to take that off the table. >> barack obama ought to be impeached. [ applause ] >> not only trampling on our liberties, but what he did in benghazi is just, it's a crime, just a crime. >> people may be starting to use the i word before too long. >> okay. the i word meaning impeachment? >> yeah. >> okay. help me out, guys. give me the facts. i'll look at them. i'm not against facts. is it about the fact that that facility wasn't adequately protected? fine. that's an incompetence, not impeachment. was it when the phone rang? or about seussen rice on meet the press and whether she told the full truth or didn't know the full truth at the time she

was talking. none of that seems to get to the president or the secretary of state personally unless somebody proves it. >> and on that third point they spent weeks hammering susan rice and the president on what she said on a sunday show rather than focusing in on the real issue. >> how would it be impeachable if somebody told the story they wanted to tell. that's impeachable? this whole country wouldn't have begun in the first place. >> we're barking up the wrong facts. the goal is impeachment. it has nothing to do with the facts. they have asked for some form of impeachment for whatever reason. two dozen lawmakers have asked for that same thing. >> is this like recalling gray davis in california? or trying to recall scott walk a er? it doesn't have anything to do with incompetence, they don't like the guy's policies?

>> they don't like the guy. that's foundation of everything. they do not like the president. a lot of them hate the president. and anything as you always say, put an asterisk next to his presidency. >> they've even talked of impeaching harry reid, if that was possible for enacting the president's policies in the senate. >> thank you, gentlemen. it's only fun because it's crazy. we shouldn't laugh at crazy. especially when it's political craziness. i think they're performing seals. they're not racists. they're performing for the people on the hard right. the caboose on the political party stays on the train. >> that's good. and it's good to keep the clown show visible. >> the clown show visible and the caboose. any word with an oo in it is funny. coming up. the audacity of no, some are saying their party has to do more than say no, no on health

care, no on immigration reform, no on anything the president has his name on. game change. more people reportedly signed up for insurance in two days this month than in all of october. and on the sufbt the affordable care act, it's not enough to call it a government takeover of health care, now they are being called nazi brown shirts. got to stop referring to people as nazis. let me finish with president obama coming here tomorrow night. it will be right on television tomorrow night at 7:00. this is "hardball," place for politics. [ male announcer ] how can power consumption in china,

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if you still don't like obama care, and i know you don't, even though it's based on market based ideas of choice and competition in the private sector, then you should explain how exactly you'd cut costs and cover more people and make insurance more secure. you owe it to the american people to tell us what you are for. not just what you're against. >> well, there's the president with a plaintiff plea to the right. the president made clear again that republicans have to do more than simply be against whatever he's for. they've got to come up with a plan or something to help. he called out mitch mcconnell for his fight to repeal the affordable care act. >> if the senate republican leader still thinks he's going

to be able to repeal this some day, he might want to check with the more than 60,000 people in his state who are already set to have coverage that frees them from the fear of financial ruin and lets them afford to take their kids to see a doctor. >> well some on the right are now pointing out that the republicans' negative message, especially contrasted with president obama's hopeful message is a political loser for the gop. today kathryn parker is here. with republicans say the health care is doomed and a train wreck, and offer no helpful plan -- kathryn palmer is a columnist. both are political analysts. governor, when you look at -- i

think, because i don't want to get too optimistic, but it looks like the website situation is a hell of a lot better than it was supposed to be back on october 1. and is the republican party getting a little antsy about maybe total no isn't enough. maybe like fitzpatrick and those around philly, they can't join the really angry southerners down thayer. >> sure, and, again, remember, the affordable health care act is playing out in the context of other things, like immigration reform, like the farm bill, things where there's been nothing but negativity, things like we hate what president obama is for. they've got to start talking about it realistically. i was on a show where some republican said well, we're for making sure that people don't

get disqualified for pre-existing conditions. we're for eliminating lifetime cap, et cetera, but they're not for the mandate. and i pointed out, you can't have the insurance reforms without putting healthy people in the pool. they should just check with their private insurance companies. they are the one whose say that's a disaster. so they have no proposal. they flounder when they try to explain what they're for. and eventually, that's going to sink in. >> you know what i find interesting, we were just talking about impeachment, and i was thinking, they're impeaching the president for delaying some of the implementation of obama kafrmt and then they attack him for pushing it out too early, the rollout of the exchange on october 1. wait a minute. is he guilty on both drebss, bad for bringing something on time and bringing something later?

these guys should check with each other about their indictments because they're 180 from each other. >> well, it makes them look sill eye. they kind of remind me right now of you know how we go to the conventions we have the protesters caged. and you let them vent and get that out of their system. >> a gravelly, former parking lot. >> i agree the negative is getting them nowhere because i wrote a column just about that. and president obama is wise to that. he realizes they've said no all along. i'm going to be mr. positive, mr. hope and change. but he's distracting from the comes that they have raised, the misleading of the american people about keeping what you want, all those things are still out there. >> do you think it's smart to call him a liar? >> i don't use that word. >> i avoid that word. i'm sure somebody will accuse my of using it. but it ends the conversation.

once you call the other side a liar, what's there to talk about. >> you and i were raised not to call somebody a liar. it doesn't help them. and by the way, no, no, no not only insults the president, it insults the american people because they put him in office. they put the democrats in charge. and so when you are constantly badgering, essentially, the leader of the country, you're badgering all those people. and eventually, it just becomes a raw, kind of wound that you can't finish. you can't heal. >> the president's going to widen the issue. and he's going wider. he says you want to fight me on principle? i've got a bigger argument. he included the affordable care act in a rnl laer system of social responsibility which he says benefits us all. and he uses his story as living proof. let's listen to the president once again step back to his strength, his argument for a more just america, not just arguing over one program.

here he is. >> i'm only here because this country educated my grandfather on the g.i. bill. when my father left and my mom hit hard times trying to raise my sister and me while she was going to school, this country helped make sure we didn't go hungry. when michelle, the daughter of a shift worker at a water plant and a secretary, wanted to go to college, just like me, this country helped us afford it until we could pay it back. so what drives me as a son, a grandson, a father, as an american is to make sure that every striving, hard-working, on the mystic kid in america has the same incredible chance that this country gave me. >> this is why he was elected, right then. because that grabbed me. the idea we came here and got on the escalator and got better off

in this country than we would have gotten in whatever country we came from. the g.i. bill, these are opportunities that we get in this country to move up that escalator. and he was saying i was one of the people who went up that way. we can't stop that escalator. that grabbed me. but i get the feeling sometimes they're afraid to talk about poor people. you've been good politically in building a coalition between less well off people and better off people. it seems like the president's not afraid of it anymore. what do you think's changed? >> he's decided he's going to fight for what he believes in. and he's going to spend the next three years taking the case to the american people. and interestingly, the president got a huge help in the last two weeks from the pope. the pope who sounded the same message for catholics all over the word, and not just catholics but people all over the world. we are supposed to take care of

each other. that's what made this country great. we're supposed to take care of each other. when one falls down, all the rest are supposed to pick him up. it is a hopeful message. people want their better angels appealed to. they want to be god. they want to be giving. and the president's now sounding the right tone. now kathleen's right. he's been able to, in the last day or two switch the dialog away from some of the problems with implementation, with the mistake about, if you like your health care plan you can keep it. he's now broadening the dialog and he's sworn to do that, because it's a winning proposition. people want to do it. and especially as we get into the holidays. it's a great time to be delivering that message. >> it's an all political move, too. >> he's making this call to citizenship and unity which is always lovely to the ears. and i can make all the

statements that he made about his family. but the affordable care act was passed without any republican votes, and this all comes at a time when it's divided as since my lifetime, the '60s at least. he's leaving out a certain percentage of the american people, about half, who don't think we're on the right track, and he's, by the way, there's a new harvard political poll out that shows that president obama is losing the support of the millennials who put him in office. >> i heard that. how many newspapers do you have now in your syndication? talking about the americanes ca later. >> i need three more to hit 500, the magic number. >> this is one of the most successful columnists in the country. i'm so glad you've hooked up with msnbc. up next, bill clinton clarifies his infamous comment

about smoking marijuana and not inhaling. this is "hardball," the place for politics. i love having a free checked bag

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back to "hardball," and now for the sideshow. bill clinton shed some new light on one of his most enduring quotes from his 1992 campaign, no, it's not a place called hope but his defense about smoking pot. >> new controversy is swirling around in the form of marijuana smoke. it was during this appearance that he was asked point blank about illegal drugs. >> and that when i was in england, i experimented with marijuana a time or two, and i didn't like it and didn't inhale and never did it again. >> since then i didn't inhale has become one of the most

quoted remarks in politics. >> like many things in the press, that whole thing has been totally twisted. i didn't say i was holier than thou. i said i tried. i never denied that i used marijuana. i told the truth. i thought it was funny. and with the only journalist who was there said i told the truth. everyone else had to cover that up because that's not the story they wanted to tell. so that's a silly thing. >> you could say many on the hard right have been overzealous over their krits sichl of president obama and the affordable care act. mark levine is the latest. using the term brown shirts, nazis. >> here's the headline at the

mcklatchy washington bureau, obama strives to pivot from health care woes. baum told hundreds of supporters that america needed to move beyond the health care website to focus on the benefits of the law, the hand picked group of supporters. all they need is special uniforms, mr. producer and learn how to march and salute and carry flags. i think brown would be good, you know, brown shirts. >> i'm sure mark levine's awaiting my interview tomorrow night with the president. you're watching "hardball," the place for politics. it card, which rewards her for responsibly managing her card balance. before receiving $25 toward her balance each quarter

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mexico has been found outside of its container. and an arctic blast of winter is sweeping across the rockies and midwest. parts of minnesota saw nearly 3 feet of snow in two days. the storm is blamed for six deaths. vice president biden is in china meeting with leaders there over a disputed area of airspace. welcome back to "hardball," coin him the turn around man perhaps, and with more good news about enrollment numbers the president continued to play offense on health care. >> i've acknowledged more than once that we didn't roll out parts of this law as well as we should have, but the law's already working in major ways that benefit millions of americans right now, even as

we've begun to slow the rise in health care costs which is good for family budget, good for federal and state budgets and good for the budgets of businesses small and large. this law is going to work. and for the sake of our economic security it needs to work. >> nbc news reports that 29,000 people sign the up through the healthcare.gov site on sun and monday alone. that's bad news, perhaps, for its conservative critics. they seem to be running out of ammunition on the other side. quote, it does seem as though we've entered a new stage in the health care battle with democrats regrouping and dare we say unified and with republicans running out of new attacks. congressman, thank you for joining us. i am amazed that the president, well, let me just say i am amazed by the whole thing, the screw up starting october 1, the relatively quick recovery in his efforts, his new focus on

execution, bringing in the right people where they weren't there before, how's this moving politically? i'll talk about administration tomorrow night, but what about the politics? is he able to turn this thing around in time to protect the seats he has in congress next year? >> yes, because what the american people want is not a repeal of the affordable care act, they want it to be fixed. and they're tired of republicans who have been rooting to sabotage and repeal it. now republicans are just getting down right desperate. speaker boehner has been willfully misleading the american people talking about this family in new york who couldn't get coverage for their 18 month old daughter and it turns out the reason they had problems is because the person who applied in that family happens to be a republican politician in new york screwed up the application and forgot that he had four children and only put down three children.

i don't know what's worse, that speaker boehner misled the american people or that this guy forgot how many children he has. >> was there a lot of this rain dancing and trying to rain on the president's parade by their own pr efforts? they say to the young people, be careful, they're spooking around at your private life. be careful, it's going to hurt you as a woman, as a young person. this effort to try to play down the natural urge to participate in a fair, grownup system. >> they have engaged in a campaign of fear and smear. they know they cannot afford as republicans politically for the affordable care took the succeed. and you know what? we're going on offense now. we're going to let the world know that every single republican who talks about repealing the act is imposing a $1200 tax on seniors by reopening the doughnut hole. so when they talk about repeal, what they're talking about is

hitting the middle class and seniors in their pocketbooks. they're talking about a new surcharge on young people who will no longer be able to stay on their parents' insurance plans. we've been on defense. we're going on offense. we want to focus on the success of this program while republicans focus on its demise. they want to go back to a system where health insurance companies had free rein over people's health care. >> i want to leave it to your website to explain the doughnut hole. the majority of americans plan to sign up for insurance rather than pay the fine. however, there's a strong partisan break down. 80% of uninsured democrats say they plan to sign up. among republican, look at these numbers. just 46% say they're going to get insured versus 45% who say they're going to pay the fine. they're listening to their party

telling them don't sign up. why are republicans not playing ball here? the regular people? >> that's now, chris. we'll see what happens as we approach the deadline. i think what's going to happen is likely to resemble what happened in massachusetts when you had almost an identical plan and democrats and progressives and conservatives signed up for the plan. at the end of the day they want to know god forbid, they get sick, they're not bankrupt. they want to know that they can afford health care and no insurance company is going to tell them we just can't afford to cover your breast cancer. right now they may have a certain view of things, but it worked in massachusetts, and i think people are going to make a very similar calculation with the affordable care act nationally. >> please tell your troops to watch tomorrow night, we have the president on. ryan grimm joins us right now. let's talk politics right now.

where's the president standing? he's agreed to do our show tomorrow. he's out generally talking about social justice. what's his approach to this difficult couple of weeks right now politically? >> this is one of those rare issues where reality really matters. what happens on the ground drives the politics. so as people were unable to sign up, he was naturally on the defensive. but the last two months, people have been organizing. people have been getting together and now that the website finally work, you know, they're going for it. and tens of thousands of people are signing up. so the reality is driving the politics now. and that's why he's on the offensive. >> you reported that the law will work thanks in part to an army of advocates on the ground in tightly concentrated areas that have a large number of uninsured people. you call them the uninsured hotspots. take a look at this map here. there are 7 million uninsured

people in these hotspots. they've coordinated outreach efforts by unions and non-profits. some of them have poor area, pockets of poverty, but people who are in pockets of poverty generally have medicaid going for them. so are these people who are working poor, who go to work but don't have health insurance? that the areas that we're looking at now? >> that's exactly right. some of the organizers that we've a talked to said they'd go to a neighborhood and almost every person they'd meet was uninsured and eligible for obama care. a lot of them won't be eligible because there was no medicaid expansion, but in states like california or chicago they're finding these pockets of people where they can round them up and sign them up. so you can have a meeting. and you can sign up 300 people at once as happened in sacramento. but it doesn't stop there. those 300 people go home.

obama care's in the news. they're talking to their friends about obama care. >> word of mouth. >> and they mention to their neighbor hey, i just signed up for obama care. and that's how this starts to stred. >> that as how it works in movies sometimes. this thing's working. go see it. in this case, it's more important, life and death. up next, president obama returns to a theme we'll probably hear often over the next three years of his presidency, economic justice and social justice. this is "hardball," the please for politics. life with crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis is a daily game of "what if's". what if my abdominal pain and cramps come back? what if the plane gets delayed? what if i can't hide my symptoms? what if?

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to move that old 401(k) to a fidelity i.r.a. former vice president dick cheney has spoken out about that rift between his daughters. you remember mary cheney, a lesbian took to facebook to criticize her sister liz who's running for the senate out in wyoming. here's what mr. cheney said about it. >> we're surprised when there was an attack launched against liz on her facebook. and wished it hadn't happened. and do believe we've lived with their situation for many years. and it's always been dealt with within the context of the family, and frankly, that's our preferences. >> well, the feud began last

month with liz cheney, she said she believes in the traditional definition of marriage. we'll be right back. [ male announcer ] here's a question for you. if every u.s. home replaced one light bulb with a compact fluorescent bulb, the energy saved could light how many homes? 1 million? 2 million?

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we're back at what is being billed as a preview of the state of the union address the president spoke today. he spoke about the growing income equality gap. the president shifted to offense by laying out his agenda on how he will spend the next three years of his presidency working to narrow the income gap. and building what he says will be a thriving middle class. >> let me repeat.

the combined trends of increased inequality and decreasing mobility pose a fundamental threat to the american dream, our way of life and what we stand for around the globe. and it is not simply a moral claim that i'm making here. there are practical consequences to rising inequality and reduced mobility. it has been the driving force between everything we've done these past five years. and over the course of the next year and for the rest of my presidency, that's where you should expect my administration to focus all our efforts. >> president obama said he wants america to be a magnet for a good middle class and good middle class jobs in manufacturing, infrastructure and energy. and made a vocal push for an increase in the minimum wage. but for those who work hard and play by the rules, is the american dream still achievable or have the rules changed to benefit the few at the expense

of many? thank you both for joining us. congressman, you know all about what's going on in the house of representatives. it's run by republicans, and is the republicans are run by the hard right. how do you get through a big bill, the kind with infrastructure and benefitting others potentially with so many jobs when you have a republican congress that says no? everything that president obama proposed, probably the minimum wage, as well. >> well, it will be very tough. but the fact of the matter is much of this can begin in the senate. and i really believe if we can get the senate to act on some of this, much of it, it will force the house to really react. they are not going to originate any of this stuff. and i'm very pleased the president has now laid down a foundation that hopefully we will begin to build upon. a foundation that tells us that

this is not just about a moral question. this is about income inequality that exists in this country. you know, of all of the counties in this country, 488 of them are what we call persistently poverty-laden counties. and this is not about skin color, as the president said, or ethnicity. if you go into kentucky, west virginia, tennessee, arkansas, those are not hispanic or african-americans or native americans. those are white americans and they have the same problem with this inequality that african americans have in south carolina or north carolina or mississippi and alabama. >> madam mayor, whenever i give

a motivational speech like a commencement address, i usually try to point out something that i think is particularly wrong to women, even though i'm a white male, that is never say no to yourself. one thing that bugs me is the president doesn't come out with a major infrastructure proposal that grabs the people, says wow, this is a great unite. we'll reunite this country by fast speed rail, and reunited th -- reunite this country, it will be a capital investment where we have low interest rates and we're going to think big, and make the republicans think no big. instead, he has this infrastructure bill that never gets any attention, isn't there an argument that can be made, i know you're a democrat, why this president doesn't just jam the republicans with a really big proposal that grabs the american people across the country and he doesn't do it? >> well, i listened to his state

of the union address last year, and what you're talking about was in that speech. we're not playing for second. it is important for us to invest in infrastructure. i think what you're seeing is the fact that the president is putting forward what he believes he can get through. when you have a republican congress that believes in investing in jobs and infrastructure and making sure we are competitive on the world stage is pork, do you want them to say no, big for show. we don't have a show horse, we have a president who thinks he can build coalition around. >> i disagree, because i think the american people ought to know the difference between the two parties. they ought to know in big block letters, this president believes in infrastructure, big capital budget, and believes in borrowing for the future, not the past, and not let the republicans intimidate, because

they say no so fast. how would it hurt to challenge the republicans with a big proposal -- he is putting the words together in his speech today. but does it have to be a legislative speech that gives concrete action to it? >> i agree with what you're saying, he mentioned in his speech today this was not his state of the union. i hope he was saying he would flesh it all out in his state of the union address. and i really believe there is a case to be made that the state of our union is of such that we have to rebuild our infrastructures. we have to put people back to work and get our young people educationed. we have to make sure that folks who are unemployed have some hope. and some safety net upon which they can begin to find some community while they're looking

for work. and that is why tomorrow on the hill, our committee is going to be looking at unemployment insurance and what we should do. because 1.3 million americans are going to lose their unemployment insurance compensation as of the 28th, i believe of december. and we need to get their needs helped, so while they're looking for work they can feed their children. i think the president will flesh this out in his state of the union. >> thank you, we'll get back to this conversation with mayor stephanie rawlins, and leader of the house, jim clyburn. and don't forget, the president be our guest tomorrow. we'll be right back after this. especially in my line of work. now do you have a little lemonade stand? guys, i'm in fashion!

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. let me finish tonight with this, i'm going to be short in closing tonight except to say i look forward with hope and a little bit of a concern about tomorrow's visit by the president. i'm concerned about the discussions and concerns people have today, not just the concerns but whether or not the government can function. whether we can regain our confidence in the ability of the governme government, especially here in washington to deliver on its promises, and can we, the american people, really set out what we want to do?

big hopes and questions, i hope there is no way in the world my loyal hardballers out there are going to miss a minute of it. set your watches, 7:00 p.m. eastern, and watch us here, the place for politics, that is it for now, thank you for joining us, "all in" with chris hayes sta starts right now. good evening from new york, i'm chris hayes, the white house today got the best news it has had in two months about obama care. we will bring that news to you in a moment as well as the president's latest push to get young people to enroll. but it has always been the case, the political fate of obama care would rest ultimately on its performance, what it did for people's lives and not on the lies and slander directed at it from the right. and while the smears deployed ag